Guardian of Nature: Beast Mode

Usable By: Druid, Ranger

Spell Level: 4

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: Self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V

A nature spirit answers your call and transforms you into a powerful guardian. The transformation lasts until the spell ends. You choose one of the following forms to assume: Primal Beast or Great Tree.

Primal Beast. Bestial fur covers your body, your facial features become feral, and you gain the following benefits:

Your walking speed increases by 10 feet.

You gain darkvision with a range of 120 feet.

You make Strength-based attack rolls with advantage.

Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit.

Great Tree. Your skin appears barky, leaves sprout from your hair, and you gain the following benefits:

You gain 10 temporary hit points.

You make Constitution saving throws with advantage.

You make Dexterity and Wisdom-based attack rolls with advantage.

While you are on the ground, the ground within 15 feet of you is difficult terrain for your enemies.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

The druid planting their staff into the ground, pulling green electric magic from the earth and transforming into a beastial guardian: that is a D&D look for sure. Growing massive trunk-like legs, bark skin, and tangling roots from your feet- oh yeah, that’s a druid spell for sure. The price of looking cool? A 4th level slot! For just 1 minute! And it eats your concentration! Oh boy, this is quite bad!

There are two modes with Guardian of Nature: Primal Beast and Great Tree. Primal Beast offers you advantage on strength based attack rolls (something you’re probably not doing a lot of), 1d6 bonus damage on hit, 120 ft. darkvision, and a bonus 10 feet of movement. As a druid, making a single attack a turn, this is atrocious. As a ranger making two or three attacks a turn, this is quite a bit better, but way later in the game, and not three levels better than just Hunter's Mark most of the time.

Great Tree gives you a measly TEN temporary hit points, advantage on Constitution saving throws (notably that applies to maintaining concentration on this effect), advantage on Dexterity and Wisdom based attack rolls, and 15 ft. selective difficult terrain around you. This effect is quite a bit better, but when you add all pieces together largely just a 15 ft. area of one-sided difficult terrain and advantage on the concentration save you’d make to maintain it. The bonus HP is nice to have, but ultimately not that impactful, and getting advantage on Dex and Wis based attack rolls is neat, but ultimately quite bad on druids who are still just making one attack a round.

If this spell had an hour duration I’d be more into it; getting these minor passive bonuses for just a minute though? Not worth it. Concentration is incredibly competitive, and while this technically does a lot of things, none of them are particularly impactful or noteworthy. There will be a handful of rangers who find Guardian of Nature is a decent upgrade from Hunter’s Mark in the lone set-piece encounter, and a few circle of the moon druids who want to be clawing and biting non-stop. In those rare cases, it's just kind of fine. It's not exciting, explosive, or game shaping. It's just kind of “eh, sure. That’s handy. Hope I don’t immediately drop concentration from all these melee attacks I’ll be asking for.” And that’s not worth a 4th level spell slot most of the time.

5e Spells

Guardian of Nature: Beast Mode